Bulgaria

In the north of Bulgaria, there is a fertile plateau that stretches from the Danube River toward the Balkan Mountains. It is an important farming region where grains, fruits and vegetables are grown. Beyond these mountains are rolling lowlands, rising to the Rhodope Mountains along the Greek border. Bulgaria was once called Thrace. The Thracians were the first people who originally settled here in about 1000 B.C. After AD 500, Slavs poured into the region from the north and a century later an Asian people called the Bulgars invaded from the east.